Magic
by The Mome Raths Outgrabe
Summary: A series of one-shots that combine Avengers and Once upon a time (mainly featuring Loki).
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Thor, Avengers, Once Upon a Time.**

 **A/N: Takes place in the current season after Regina and the Evil Queen were split but before The Evil Queen and Rumple united.**

 **Characters: Loki, The evil queen.**

 **Genre: Drama.**

* * *

"Greetings m'lady," The evil queen turned around wondering who dared enter her quarters uninvited. The answer appeared to be a dark-haired stranger dressed in green and black armor with stripes of gold.

"Who are you?" she smiled though she was showing too many teeth for it to be confused with a friendly one. Her eyes scanned, cataloged everything about him. The stranger was tall, over six feet, his skin was on the paler side of the spectrum. He smiled at her like they were old friends. But there was something simmering beneath the surface, something familiar.

"Why my queen, don't you recognize me?" he added with a shark grin that rivaled her own.

She looked at his face more carefully, while the look in his eyes and his general demeanor were unfamiliar, his features were.

It had been quite a long time since she had last seen him. He had been a lot younger back then, but so had she. It had been soon after she had become queen, before she had connected permanently with magic. A young man similar to Henry's current age had shown up out of nowhere from a foreign realm. The young man had been closer to Snow's age than her own but he had often been around her, especially after he had caught her using magic. He hadn't said a word though, unlike Snow, he had known had to keep a secret. Even though she had still been learning the young man had wanted to know everything she knew about their form of magic. The young man had his own which he had shared a few times, but mostly just said that it worked differently than her own.

Honestly, when he had left without one day she had missed her pale shadow. but had easily been distracted. Not much later she had finally committed to magic and getting her revenge. She hadn't thought of him in years.

"Loki, it's been a long time." He advanced on her but even though everything about him screamed predator, she wasn't afraid. Very rarely was she afraid.

"Longer for me," he said not losing his grin. Clearly, last time they had met she had been several years his senior and now he looked to be around her age. Strange. If he had been a different realm unaffected by her curse than he should be much older than her as she hadn't aged for 28 years and Loki would have aged all that time.

Loki stopped a few feet from her and his eyes glimmered with...darkness. It was darkness. Strange, when they had last met he had been intelligent, and at times mischievous, but she hadn't sensed it in him back then. Her ability to sense it though wasn't as refined it was now. Darkness knew darkness much better than anyone else.

Back then she hadn't allowed the darkness in and if she had to guess neither had the man in front of her. But fate or something else had brought them back together. What was even more interesting is that their paths seemed to have run parallel to each other. They both had been fascinating with magic but untouched by it and now...now she could see their similarities written in his grin.

She knew nothing about him. Where he had been all this time? What he had done? Or what had been done to him? But she knew whatever it was had brought her to this moment. He took her hand and brought it up to his mouth where he lightly kissed it, maintaining eye contact with her the whole time.

"I've heard of what's happened since we last met." Rage simmered in her veins and she felt her stomach roil at the thought that her weaker side had sided and grown close to Snow and her husband but she didn't show it.

"Funny, I haven't heard anything about you," she pointed out.

"That's because you haven't been outside Storybrooke much," he responded, letting go of her hand and started to walk around her.

"If I had, what would I see?" She asked trying to get more of a handle on the man who was both familiar to her and at the same time unfamiliar. He turned to face her and he looked at her with a wide grin.

"Patience patience, you don't want to ruin it all in one sitting. It's a very good story. I will, however, give you a small portion to start with but some of it may sound familiar. I was lied to and betrayed by those closest to me. Led to believe that I could be something other than what I am." She knew that he wanted her to ask and so she almost didn't but curiosity got the better of her and so after a few moments she asked.

"And what's that?"

"A monster." The malevolent grin on his face gave her pause for a second, before she remembered she was stronger than anyone except for Gold.

"And what are you doing here?" she asked starting to circle him this time. He didn't seem bothered by it.

"My own attempt at revenge didn't work as well as I had hoped but maybe I could help you with yours?" It was an unexpected offer but one she would be a fool not to consider. She had Gold as her sometime ally but this...She didn't trust him exactly. She didn't trust anyone really, but she wanted to see how this would play out because she could tell it was going to be interesting.


	2. Duality

It was finally here, after all, this time it was finally in front of him. He stared down at the liquid in the glass with anticipation that was mirrored by the room's other occupants, although theirs were for entire for entirely different reasons. Snow and Belle both sent him brief happy glances and he felt it again. Guilt. Stabbing painful guilt. He thought he had buried these emotions long ago in the deepest recess of his mind that he could possibly find. However, during his time in the land of untold stories it had started to come back. It had grown even worse when he landed here. But it had to be done. It was the only way to stop it. To stop these emotions, this pain, guilt and fear that had slowly been creeping back up in him again.

He was a monster. He knew that now. He was a born a monster and there was no way of fighting it-

 _Or was there?_

It didn't matter, it was what he was. A monster, even if no one else could see his monstrous blue skin it didn't stop what he was.

 _You don't have to be one._

He was born that way there was no choice.

 _Except that, for the past month and a half, you have done it very well._

It was a ploy. A way to gain their trust so that this very event could happen. He had joined their side against the evil queen, led his somewhat played down physical strength since even though they were Midgardian they were of a similar build. He hadn't used his magic much because he claimed to be from a foreign land from legend and claimed that while that land had magic he hadn't been taught it. This lie had multiple purposes, one so that neither side would pay him much attention. Technically, they had been there in the land when he had tried to take it over not too long ago. If they placed him than they certainly wouldn't trust him with anything. Also, they may think him a threat. It was better for him if he wasn't recognized or thought of as a threat.

He wasn't even sure if he was a serious threat. Loki's magic may be stronger in Storybrooke than it had been Asgard or even in Midgard, but he wasn't sure how it compared to Gold or Regina/Evil Queen. He could feel the magic in the air, he could practically taste it. But the only time he had used it was once when he was fighting against the Queen and accidentally cast an illusion to protect Snow.

It was then he knew that his weakness had become too strong, that these dual sides would destroy him if he let it. Thankfully, after much work by Doctor Frankenstein or as he was also sometimes called Dr. Whale and Regina they were able to come up with another dose of the potion that had originally split her. Their hope was that if they had the potion they come up with an antidote for it and reunite the halves of Regina again, thus eliminating the threat. Regina wasn't exactly enthused by the prospect but she agreed that everyone would be safer.

 _No one will be safer if you do this._

Sentiment. He was full of sentiment. Weakness that he was drowning in. He had to get rid of it. There was only one way to do it, he gazed at the potion in front of him. Ever since he heard what had happened to the Evil Queen/Regina he had wanted to do the same for himself, to rip the weakness out of him. It was easier to be the monster than be in this constant state of fighting against himself. Neither of the two he was in the room with had magic, and they both appeared to trust him. They both looked at him like they trusted him, like they cared for him. He hadn't been looked at that way since before Thor's attempted coronation.

 _Thor...where was he? Did he still hate him?_

He, shook his head. Sentiment. It was going to ruin him if he let it..and he couldn't let it. He was a monster, born on a harsh frozen world. He was not the hero. He may have lied to himself for a thousand years, and lied to everyone in Storybrooke ever since he had set foot in their realm, but the time for lies was over. He took in a deep calming breath trying to quiet the voice in the back of his head.

 _You are making a mistake. You are making a mistake that you will never be able to come back from. You could have a new life here, you don't need revenge on Asgard, you don't need anything but to fit somewhere._

"Sentiment," he realized he had spoken aloud when Snow and Belle looked at him questioningly.

Guilt tried to seep in again. If he did this there would be no way to stop Regina. She would continue unchecked and hurt the people of Storybrooke.

He didn't care.

 _Then why did you save Snow?_

He clasped his hand over his eyes and leaned onto the table near the vial. This duality was destroying him. His eyes moved to the vial. Peace, it was his way to get to the get peace.

"Luke? Are you okay?" He wasn't sure who the speaker was but he knew he couldn't look. If he did it would give his weaker side more pause and maybe even stop him from doing what he knew he had to do. Loki closed his eyes one last time, gathering up all his hatred around himself like a protective bubble so that he could finish what he had started. When darkness had sufficiently surrounded his heart he opened them. Belle and Snow both looked worried but also slightly wary, like they could sense it.

The time for games and lies was over. He lifted his hand and the two easily blew across the room and stuck against the wall. He briefly looked down at his hand surprised by how easy it had been, there was a lot of magic in Storybrooke, which only enhanced his own. Loki looked up from his hand to the women on the wall. The wary look was stronger now and fear made an appearance as well. A grin split his face, he enjoyed their fear.

 _No, you don't._

Sentiment, he scowled at the thought.

"Luke, what are you doing?"

"You think after everything that has happened in this town that you would be a little less trusting of strangers," he said moving slightly towards the two women on the wall.

"I needn't have avoided Emma so much, I'm not the only one who got away with lying to her."

"What do you want?" Snow asked. She sounded more heartbroken than angry. Maybe that's why he answered truthfully.

"I can't do this anymore." It was too much. "This weakness, this part of me that cares for you," he admitted as part of him hated that he was doing to two women who had been very kind to him ever since he had shown up 6 weeks ago. "I have to rip it out," he said and looked briefly at the vial. He saw in their eyes though the moment that they understood his purpose because their eyes went wide with horror. He gripped the bottle and looked up again. Snow's eyes were full of tears.

"Luke, no don't do this," Part of him felt guilty. This was Snow's way of breaking the curse that kept her from being with Charming but the more ruthless part of him forced it down as far as he could. It was unfortunate, but he couldn't stand this duality anymore. He looked at Snow in the eyes as he said.

"My name is not Luke, it's Loki and now you will finally get the chance to know the real me," he took the drink and ingested it. It burned all the way down. It burned deeply in an excruciating way, only the pain wasn't physical in the least. It seemed to take forever but was probably just a few seconds before the pain stopped. He hesitantly opened his eyes that he had shut when the pain had started.

Loki froze as he caught a look...at himself. His double seemed to be staring at him just as intently as he stared at his double. It had worked, they were separated...only they looked exactly the same and he didn't feel any different. He had to be different. There were two of them so he had to be either the good or the bad one. Which was he? It took longer than he would have thought before he realized that something was indeed different. Something was very different. The darkness that had wormed its way into his heart was long ago and had filled his veins with the thirst for vengeance was...gone. Just gone. His double seemed to look at him with distaste.

"So it's you who has been making me weak?" he said derisively. There was something about his own voice that made him shiver. Is this how he sounded to other people? Was it how had he had always sounded or had he made them less dark and cold? He knew he definitely wasn't the stronger of the two. Darkness had been there for so long he wasn't sure what to do without it in him. For the moment, it was all he could do to stare at his other version trying to grasp that the two of them used to be one and grasp that they were no longer one and the same. His other half seemed to process it quicker than him because in a few quick strides the two of them were face to face with only a few inches between the two.

"You should know it's best not to get in my way." He turned to the two ladies stuck to the walls. "But consider this your one and only warning," His other half was gone in a flash of green leaving him with the people he had just devastated. He just barely managed to hold them in time so they didn't go crashing down the moment his double left and lowered them to the floor.

This strength of magic was new to him, especially practicing it in plain view of two two women were still looking at him with betrayal filled doe eyes. He couldn't look at their eyes anymore and lowered his own the ground. He had forgotten what true shame and guilt felt like: the kind that wasn't pushed down within moments of feeling it. He understood now why his other half wanted to get away from it. It was awful. He felt lower than the lowest scum knowing that he had taken away everyone's hope for a solution. He knew that there was no way he could ever apologize enough for what he had done.

"Who are you really? Tell us the truth!" Snow shot at him causing his guilt to spike again.

"My name is Loki, and I'm sorry that I lied to you. As for who I really am, that's a rather long story."

"Since we no longer have the potion we have time," he winced but nodded after a moment. He had taken her best hope, he owed her an explanation.


End file.
